Blog Slows

Just a little update - after a prolific 2025 my blog posts in 2026 have slowed to a crawl. I've had a few Civil War presentations and tours already this year which require some preparation time, including a trip to the Fort Donelson Symposium where I led a tour and did a talk, and then there is the dad issue. About a month ago he was hospitalized. After a week of clearing his lungs and controlling his blood pressure, he spent nearly three weeks in a rehab facility to work on strength. Now he has been in an independent living apartment for almost two weeks, and it has been a chore. Not only organizing the move and getting him settled, but his memory, almost overnight, has been severely impacted. The facility is beautiful - new, with plenty of excellent amenities, but dad seems to also find the negative in every aspect. And the incessant phone calls (called me over 60 times when I was in Tennessee, always wanting to go "home" even though he knows he can't due to his need for having others around) and worn me, and more importantly to me, my wife down to a frazzled edge. So I have not had the energy to paint, decal, or post, let alone to get a game or two in. There is the constant running to his house (45 minutes away) and then visiting him. By the time I get home, I'm done mentally for the day. Also, the weather has prevented me from priming many planes over the winter, but now the weather is improving I at least will be able to work on that task.

I do keep working on research, having created scenario outlines featuring the F6F Hellcat, including a few featuring VF-27 as I have the excellent Scale Specialties decal sheet which includes the distinctive cat face of the squadron. What I also like about VF-27 is the fairly late war use of the three color scheme before morphing into the overall glossy dark sea blue, and they were using both schemes the day the USS Princeton, their carrier, was sunk. The three color paint scheme is not so daunting to me, having worked on some early war Wildcats and Buffalos - same colors, with the addition of the band of dark blue to the upper surfaces.

To pull off the seven VF-27 scenarios I only need four Hellcats (more accurately it would be four -3 and four -5 models, but at 1/285 scale who is counting?), six A6M5s, four Oscars (I already have several later model Ki-43s), four Judys, and six Jills. Flight Deck does make all the planes needed (well, they offer just the -3 Hellcat, but at this scale...).

Great War Scenarios

Baer's SPAD VII - Image from Reduced Aircraft Factory

Currently there are three World War One scenario books available for Check Your 6! - those being the Colorful Skies series. These books offer the Check Your 6! gamer over 150 scenarios for the Great War, but only one that features the American 103rd Aero Squadron. To that end, I have put together, with the assistance of AI, the outlines for a dozen scenarios that focus on Paul Baer during his time with the 103rd. That is the good news. The bad news? AI cannot make a clear determination of what types of planes Baer was facing.

Baer's opponents during his short tenure with the 103rd were a mix of Jastas (his patrols ranging from early March to May 22, 1918). However the reports are often not clear on the type of planes the Germans used. We do know on certain missions Baer specifically claimed Albatros fighters, but on others his claims are listed as "scout" or "D" type. As the various Jastas in the spring of 1918 were using the Pfalz D.IIIa, the Albatros D.Va, perhaps a Fokker D.VII or two, and even the odd Fokker Dr.I, when the reports are vague we must make some assumptions, and can also assume that just because Baer claimed an Albatros that does not preclude a mix of planes being used by the Germans for that encounter, as was frequently the case within the German Jastas. Therefore, even though I have done much research and utilized many AI queries to access sources unknown to me, in some cases we simply cannot identify what aircraft types the Germans were flying.

Here are Baer's combats, with claimed (letters) and confirmed (numbers) victories:

For the scenarios I will be adding in tables to randomly determine German aircraft mix when it is unclear what was being used. The red numbers on the table that follows indicate this uncertainty.

Most of the scenarios featuring Baer's service in the 103rd are small in scope, which usually means one side would be potentially out of the fight early in the game. However, I have some ideas on using one plane per player for the smaller scenarios that should help make games last a bit longer - more on that to come as I organize my adaptations for Check Your 6! Great War.

Goblin Arrival

A very short post....

Today I received my order from Geektown for a half dozen of their McDonnell XF-85s from their Space: 1963 - Hot Skies/Cold Seas range. These tiny little parasite jets will be a fun addition to any 1950s Jet Age project.

My order was placed on February 5th, and I received it six days later.  The quality of the material used on these 3D prints is on par with Flight Deck Decals which is the gold standard for 3D aircraft.